Quotes from book
Thoughts on Machiavelli

Thoughts on Machiavelli

Thoughts on Machiavelli is a book by Leo Strauss first published in 1958. The book is a collection of lectures he gave at the University of Chicago in which he dissects the work of Niccolò Machiavelli. The book contains commentary on Machiavelli's The Prince and the Discourses on Livy.Leo Strauss argued that the most visible fact about Machiavelli's doctrine is also the most useful one: Machiavelli seems to be a teacher of wickedness. Strauss sought to incorporate this idea in his interpretation without permitting it to overwhelm or exhaust his exegesis of The Prince and the Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy.


“The silence of a wise man is always meaningful.”

Source: Thoughts on Machiavelli (1958), p. 30

“We believe that failing to call a spade a spade is not scientific.”

Source: Thoughts on Machiavelli (1958), p. 50

Similar authors

Leo Strauss photo
Leo Strauss 78
Classical philosophy specialist and father of neoconservati… 1899–1973
Olavo de Carvalho photo
Olavo de Carvalho 6
Brazilian journalist, essayist and professor of philosophy
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien photo
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien 78
British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy …
Simone de Beauvoir photo
Simone de Beauvoir 152
French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, po…
Bertrand Russell photo
Bertrand Russell 562
logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and politi…
Ayn Rand photo
Ayn Rand 322
Russian-American novelist and philosopher
Albert Schweitzer photo
Albert Schweitzer 126
French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosoph…
Fulton J. Sheen photo
Fulton J. Sheen 78
Catholic bishop and television presenter
Sigmund Freud photo
Sigmund Freud 147
Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psycho…
Theodor W. Adorno photo
Theodor W. Adorno 90
German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for …